A mother, who has two visually impaired young adult children, has described the move by Bus \u00c9ireann to cancel one of three routes across the country \u201cas ending their lifeline and independence\u201d.<\/p>\n
Fiona McCusker, a single mother who lives in Ballyhale, Co Kilkenny, who has three children, two of whom are albino, Megan (22) and James (19), depends on the service, as there are no train services and private bus operators covering the area they live in.<\/p>\n
Bus \u00c9ireann is to cease operating three of its Expressway services from Sunday, May 24th.<\/p>\n
The services that are to be withdrawn include Waterford – Dublin\/Dublin Airport (Route 4), Rosslare\/Wexford – Waterford (Route 40 Segment), and Ballina – Galway (Route 52).<\/p>\n
The bus operator has blamed “significant” financial losses that the services are accruing for the reason behind the decision to axe the routes.<\/p>\n
McCusker, a nurse in St Luke\u2019s General Hospital in Kilkenny explained that there was \u201cno prior consultation with any locals here\u201d.<\/p>\n
She explained: \u201cThis route isn\u2019t just a convenience for us \u2013 it\u2019s essential. My two visually impaired young adults rely on this service every day, especially as I work Monday to Friday and cannot always be there to bring them where they need to go. They will never be able to drive.<\/p>\n
\u201cDecisions like this completely overlook rural communities and people with additional needs. It\u2019s taking away the little bit of independence they have.<\/p>\n
“Their lives revolved around Ballyhale and having such a bus service helped them gain some of their own independence. There has to be more consideration for those who depend on public transport as a lifeline, not a luxury.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf only they had signalled the route was going to be stopped several months ago we could have at least been looking at some sort of alternatives if they exist.<\/p>\n
“I just don\u2019t know how much more families such as ours and normal working families, pensioners, students can take. We are not machines that can easily work around body blows like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her son James will be starting college in the South Eastern Technological University (SETU) Carlow in September, and was depending on the bus, as was her daughter Megan, who helps out with Vision Ireland in Dublin as does James.<\/p>\n
\u201cMegan and James are absolutely shocked by the move as am I. I thought I had them both sorted with college and work access. Even if I can get them to the train in Kilkenny city or Thomastown the timetable won\u2019t work.<\/p>\n
“Plus because of the condition they live with they find it very difficult to see things, such as seats.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘Serious blow’ to communities<\/p>\n
Local Fianna F\u00e1il TD Peter \u2018Chap\u2019 Cleere has slammed the move.<\/p>\n
Deputy Cleere described the move as \u201ca serious blow to communities\u201d across Carlow and Kilkenny.<\/p>\n
Deputy Cleere explained that the route \u201cisn\u2019t just a bus line – it\u2019s a vital link for workers, students, and families who rely on affordable, reliable public transport every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt a time when people are already under pressure from rising costs, removing daily services and cutting off key stops in our towns and villages is deeply concerning.<\/p>\n
\u201cStudents travelling to college, people commuting to work, and those accessing healthcare or Dublin Airport will all be impacted. We need solutions \u2014 not further isolation of rural communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Party colleague councillor Deirdre Cullen added: \u201cThis is a huge blow for rural connectivity in Kilkenny and surroundings. It\u2019s not good enough to pull essential transport infrastructure that many rely on to go to work, to college, to health appointments etc.<\/p>\n
Cllr Cullen highlighted that \u201con the one hand we are to encourage more use of public transport and to leave the car at home, if you have a car, but then see options reduced and taking this choice away for many. To make matters worse it\u2019s coming at a time when petrol and diesel prices are soaring.\u201d<\/p>\n
She is calling on the Minister for Transport, Darragh O\u2019Brien, and the National Transport Authority (NTA) to install a replacement bus service for the Dublin to Waterford Expressway Route 4 as a matter of urgency.<\/p>\n
\u201cPublic transport is supposed to serve the public. We deserve adequate public transport provision in rural Kilkenny and should be investing in increasing the provision of services, not reducing them,\u201d Cllr Cullen noted.<\/p>\n
The NTA has been notified about the move.<\/p>\n
Bus \u00c9ireann were contacted for further comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mother, who has two visually impaired young adult children, has described the move by Bus \u00c9ireann to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-371259","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}